RIYL: Santana, Blind Faith, The Doors

The Texas power trio loves classic rock and that affection is on display here with an EP featuring covers of five tunes from one of the greatest years in rock history, 1969. Santana’s “Evil Ways” kicks it off with a showcase for Henry Garza’s blazing lead guitar skills. Blind Faith’s “Well All Right” and the Beatles’ “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window” both receive the “Texican” treatment and become groovier than the original versions. The band makes the songs sound like their own with upbeat arrangements where Garza’s soulful vocals intertwine very nicely with his guitar playing. There are also jamming wah-wah solos at the end of each.

Tony Joe White’s “Polk Salad Annie” is the most obscure track on the disc, but it’s a bluesy rocker that fits right in. The Garza brothers close it out with The Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues,” which also receives an infusion of wah-wah before blowing up into a turbo-charged jam. All the songs retain a classic sound thanks in part to mixing by Andy Johns, the engineer who recorded the original version of “Well All Right” (as well as working with Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones.)

These artists are all obvious influences on Los Lonely Boys. But since there would be no point in making an EP of covers that sound just like the originals, it’s fun to hear the band do a strong job of re-arranging the tunes so that anyone of them would fit right into their live set. (R.E.D. Distribution 2009)

Los Lonely Boys MySpace page

Every music lover has been there – in front of the television or a set of speakers, listening for the first time to the work of a critically revered artist whose songs are supposed to change the way you look at the world…only to come away wondering what all the hype was about. For the iconoclastic among us, these moments are opportunities to prove what independent thinkers we are; for everyone else – a group that often appears to include virtually every name-brand music critic on the planet – they’re opportunities to turn off your ears, nod your head, and smile. What kind of self-respecting music writer doesn’t love the music of Bruce Springsteen? U2? Elvis Costello? A total hack, right?

Maybe. Or maybe we tend to forget that one of the most wonderful things about art is the utterly objective way we respond to it. One establishment’s treasure can be one lonely listener’s source of constant befuddlement, consternation or outright rage – and with that in mind, your Bullz-Eye Music staff put its heads together and drew up a list of all the bands and artists we’re supposed to love…but don’t. Each of the writers who contributed to this piece is speaking solely for himself, and you’re sure to disagree with some of the names mentioned here – and, of course, that’s sort of the point. But enough of our introductory babble – let’s break down some critical idols!

The Doors
“…don’t even think about describing their sound as “timeless”; you’ll be hard pressed to find music as trapped in time as these peyote-fueled dirges, and no one summed up the life and legacy of Jim Morrison – whose death was as brilliant a career move as you’ll ever see – better than Denis Leary: ‘I’m drunk, I’m nobody. I’m drunk, I’m famous. I’m drunk, I’m fucking dead.'”

Bruce Springsteen
“Perhaps Jello Biafra put it best when he referred to Bruce Springsteen as ‘Bob Dylan for jocks.’ But I can sum up what I dislike about the majority of the Boss in one word: Glockenspiel.”

Pink Floyd
“If you’re 14 and discovering pot, Pink Floyd’s a must. Hell, Dark Side of the Moon is practically a gateway drug in and of itself. If you’re out of high school and still into ’em, you’ve got a problem.”

Conor Oberst
“…his songs are duller than a steak knife in a prison cafeteria. I’ve tried repeatedly to ‘get’ Oberst’s work, but each time, I come away further convinced that his music is an elaborate prank hatched by the editors of Pitchfork.”

To read the rest of the bands Bullz-Eye doesn’t get, click here.